Don't think you will be happier with the Nox, if you don't have a HF 9" coil then that is what i would invest into one, the only thing i will use the Nox for is wet beach hunting because the Deus out performs the Nox in my area.

Others will say they like the Equinox better. There's a guy named calabash digger who is a long-time Deus user, and he loves his Equinox. He's about as objective as they come, in discussing the two machines. For him, the Equinox is a better hunter than the Deus when the Deus is fitted with an LF coil. However, with the small HF coil on the Deus, he feels the Deus with that coil is a slightly better unmasker than the Equinox 11". That said, he's interested to see what the Equinox 6" coil can do, relative to the Deus HF coil. He loves them both, and feels they are both excellent machines.

I personally have never swung a Deus, but if you have one and like it, I'd probably agree with Digger that getting the HF coil might be slightly less expensive, and give you at least equal performance on unmasking targets. From what I can gather, both are great units, both compete against each other well, the Equinox will be better at the beach, and is waterproof, and is cheaper. But for someone who already has a Deus and likes it, it's a tough call. You may really click with the Equinox and like it better, or you may end up liking the Deus better. For me, I LOVE multi-frequency; YMMV.

I have both machines and my Deus is my main machine for relic and coins which this year being my first year with the deus I've found a huge amount of silver!
so the Equinox is my beach machine and I also use it after I hit an area with my Deus.
I used to have a Etrac sold it bad tennis elbow too heavy..
I think the Deus and Equinox are great together guy I know who beach hunts swears by his Equinox for gold hes been killing the gold and he owns a CTX which he says
is not as good on gold...

I have hunted with one very serious metal detector friend over years, who bought into a Deus a years ago. He still loves the Deus, BUT he has never, ever been happy with it's depth, trying his best over years of operation. We've compared signals a lot in the past, and I have witnessed his lackluster depth in comparisons on keen silver signals. I ran a V3i BTW. Mine got the treasure, his missing it.

I've only owned my NOX for about a month. I too, was skeptical about the depth it gets here in Texas black clay, et I made the decision to get the equinox simply to gain separation under 6-8 inches for the trashy spots that has been pounded and pounded.

This Equinox is a true pleaser in depth finds! It beats my V3i, yet my Explorer an Etrac, the FBS diminishes in side by side test of separation ability with the Equinox.

Between the Equinox and the Deus as far as great detection with ID, my opinion is...the Equinox easily rules!

Quote5900_XL-1
I have hunted with one very serious metal detector friend over years, who bought into a Deus a years ago. He still loves the Deus, BUT he has never, ever been happy with it's depth, trying his best over years of operation. We've compared signals a lot in the past, and I have witnessed his lackluster depth in comparisons on keen silver signals. I ran a V3i BTW. Mine got the treasure, his missing it.

I've only owned my NOX for about a month. I too, was skeptical about the depth it gets here in Texas black clay, et I made the decision to get the equinox simply to gain separation under 6-8 inches for the trashy spots that has been pounded and pounded.

This Equinox is a true pleaser in depth finds! It beats my V3i, yet my Explorer an Etrac, the FBS diminishes in side by side test of separation ability with the Equinox.

Between the Equinox and the Deus as far as great detection with ID, my opinion is...the Equinox easily rules!

I think a lot has to do with soil for depth my Deus will go deeper so far that I’ve seen than my Equinox in my soil but I’ve played
Around with my settings and lowered recovery speed and go slower and now finding deeper targets,
I can tell you one thing the nox is a proven gold machine better than most Detectors.
I’ve been really doing well with silver finds and my Deus better than I ever did with my Etrac and I liked that machine FBS rules for me on the beach!

Totally right Mkus, in my soil the Nox won't hit a dime at 10" as where the Deus will, a nickel at 8" hits hard on the Deus and just hits soft with the Nox so for my perspective i will use both machines where they work the best.

QuoteDigger 45
Totally right Mkus, in my soil the Nox won't hit a dime at 10" as where the Deus will, a nickel at 8" hits hard on the Deus and just hits soft with the Nox so for my perspective i will use both machines where they work the best.

Your dead on I put a lot of hours in and found more silver this spring with my Deus and I just got my nox already found two silver dimes in areas that I've hit with my Deus..

I actually traded off my old Deus on a E800 because I saw no reason to own two such similar units and I was right.
The biggest difference is the Deus is an eeky-squeaky and the 800 more of a Minelab flutey tooty , but no where near the refinement in tones that it's predecessors have. That is the biggest shortcoming of the 800 , it's poor language skills. It also does not have the build quality of the Deus with it's old style design. I don't particularly care for the menu layout on the 800 but neither machine lets you "back-up" once you've enter the settings. Your detecting venues and style will determine whether the 800 is better for you than the Deus more than anything else,,,,getting one will satisfy your curiosity but probably little else

In southwest va and in northwest al both have crappy soil imo my nox barely squeaks on 9" quarter,hits 8 inch zinc,7" nickel pretty good but poor Id I also have a multi kruzer that won't touch the quarter in anything but 5khz and does close to the same on the other mentioned coins.i also tested a 3 ringer at 7 inches and both will hit and miss with poor I'd in my test area.i did go to a spot and dug a 8" 3ringer with the nox and hit solid on tone and i.d. so soil is huge in my opinion.

I've always been thinking about a dues just don't have 1500 bucks and if I got one I'd not be satisfied till I had the 9"hf coil for another 400+ pretty big price jump for very little gain in performance and some would argue that you have to change frequencies to hit things the multi IQ will already hit.but no doubt the dues and nox are great detectors with a pretty big jump in greenbacks for a full dues setup

If i was going to buy another Deus i would buy it with a 9" HF coil, the 11" is nice but the HF coil is a lot hotter. I know the Deus is a lot of money but i have bought all my detectors with the gold that i have found, lucky enough for me to find enough gold so that i can reinvest in different machines.

Once again the Nox is strictly for wet beach and the Deus for everything else.